High-Throughput Screening of Bulk Boride Superconductors with Honeycomb–Ruby Frameworks
Metal borides are promising phonon-mediated superconductors, yet discovering new high superconducting transition temperature (<i>T</i><sub>c</sub>) bulk phases beyond MgB<sub>2</sub>-type motifs remains challenging. Here we propose a bulk layered boride prototype built from a honeycomb-ruby-honeycomb trilayer boron framework with three inequivalent metal sites for chemical tuning. Using a universal machine learning interatomic potential-accelerated high-throughput workflow combined with first-principles calculations, we screen over 120,000 candidates and identify 38 dynamically stable, near-hull compounds with <i>T</i><sub>c</sub> > 5 K, reaching <i>T</i><sub>c</sub> = 28.9 K for LiTiRuB<sub>18</sub>. Statistical analysis reveals a strong positive correlation between <i>T</i><sub>c</sub> and the B-p density of states at Fermi surfaces. Representative electronic and electron-phonon coupling analyses show multiband Fermi surfaces formed jointly by B-σ and B-π states and demonstrate that, beyond high-frequency B-B modes, metal-regulated soft B-M hybrid modes dominate the variation of electron-phonon coupling. These results expand the structural diversity of layered borides and establish an efficient data-driven route to bulk boride superconductors at ambient pressure.
Authors
- Junhao Peng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8904-9761)
- Jiawei Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3751-8367)
- Y. T. Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5261-7020)
- Minru Wen
- Renhai Wang
- Fugen Wu
- Huafeng Dong
- Yaohai Huang
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology (YE)
- Guangdong University of Technology (CN)
- College of Management Academic Studies (IL)
- Ministry of Education (CL)
- Guangzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Published
- 2026-03-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.5c06103
- Primary Topic
- Boron and Carbon Nanomaterials Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00